The official opening ceremony of the new fuel station took place on 7th June 2012 in Tortona, Italy. It was possible to fuel vehicles with E10 and E85 bioethanol. More information on the event you may find here

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BIOLYFE Newsletter - Issue 12

BIOLYFE Newsletter - Issue 12

July 2013

The BIOLYFE project

The BIOLYFE project aims at improving critical steps of the second generation bioethanol production process and at demonstrating the whole supply chain, from feedstock sourcing via fuel production to product utilisation. The main result will be the construction of an efficient second generation industrial demonstration unit with an annual output of about 40,000 tons of lignocellulosic bioethanol.

BIOLYFE is co-funded by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Programme (Project No. FP7-239204). Project duration is four years and activities started in January 2010.

In this Newsletter

In this newsletter issue you will find information on the 2nd BIOLYFE conference which took place on 4th June in Copenhagen alongside the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition. In addition you will find information of the BIOLYFE SWOT workshop which took place on 3rd April in Madrid alongside the 3rd International Conference on Lignocellulosic Ethanol (3ICLE). Finally, you will find an update on the upcoming events related to biofuels.

2nd BIOLYFE conference on 4th June 2013 in Copenhagen

The BIOLYFE consortium organised the 2nd BIOLYFE conference on 4th June 2013 in Copenhagen alongside the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition. The conference attracted over 30 participants from all over the world.

The goal of this conference was to provide an insight into second generation bioethanol production. The focus of the conference was on technological issues related to the production of second generation bioethanol at the demo-plant in Crescentino, Italy.

17:30 Final discussion and closing of the conference Rainer Janssen, WIP Renewable Energies

Picture 1: Participants of the conference

The conference was moderated by Rainer Janssen from WIP Renewable Energies.

The Key note presentation was made by Kyriakos Maniatis from European Commission, DG Energy on the Role of advanced biofuels in the EU’s energy and climate strategy. The main topics discussed were current use of biofules in the EU, sustainability criteria, and the Commission’s proposal on ILUC.

Picture 2: Kyriakos Maniatis, European Commission, DG Energy

Today we use around 14 Mtoe of biofuels, but including estimated indirect effects, these biofuels only save around 20% GHG emissions compared to the fossil fuels they replace. In order to achieve the envisaged 80% reduction of GHG emission in 2050, we are likely to need around 100 Mtoe of biofuels that save substantial amounts of GHG emissions (75% and more). Such high savings are likely to be achieved only with biofuels based on wastes or residues or other types of advanced biofuels. The two main legislative acts relevant for the promotion of the use of renewable transport fuels are the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) and the RED. The FQD sets a 6% greenhouse gas reduction target in carbon intensity of road transport fuels and the Renewable Energy Directive sets a target of 10% renewable energy in transport by 2020. Biofuels are expected to deliver a significant contribution to both targets.

Dario Giordano from Chemtex Italia presented the Green Chemistry and Biobased products: Chemtex approach based on Proesa technology. Crescentino commercial plant was introduced as a starting point for the biorefinery. ‘Only if we succeed in converting the whole barrel of biomass in a dedicated biorefinery, we will be successful and competitive’, told Dario Giordano.

Picture 3: Dario Giordano, Chemtex Italia

Rainer Janssen from WIP Renewable Energies introduced EC policies and support schemes on advanced biofuels. Sustainability criteria and existing initiatives such as the Global Bioenergy Partnership, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels as well as ISCC (international sustainability and carbon certification system) were discussed. Rainer Janssen also introduced different existing financial support schemes for advanced biofuels: FP7, ERA-NET Plus, and NER 300. According to Rainer Janssen, existing legislation currently gives low certainty to renewable premium over fossil fuels leading to difficult project financing. It is important to extend the Renewable Energies Directive by including clear targets for 2G to 2025-2030. Also a clear growth path for 2G should be implemented.

Picture 4: Rainer Janssen, WIP Renewable Energies

David Chiaramonti from University of Florence discussed demo-plants from economic and financial perspective and R&D needs. Different on-going projects all over the world were introduced. Currently there are 39 demo projects in EU (22 on biochemical processes and 17 on thermochemical processes). USA and Brazil were mentioned as the leading countries in ethanol production. Asia is a very promising continent with fast growing market and huge potential for advanced biofuels and green chemicals (India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan etc.). The main benefits from advanced biofuels development and deployment in the EU are as follows: employment, know-how development, mobilization of investment and export. All this significantly contributes to sustainable development.

Picture 5: David Chiaramonti, University of Florence, Italy

Federico Liuzzi from ENEA made a presentation on Hydrolysis of biomass at high matter content: effect of different pretreatments and process strategies. Arundo donax contains significant percentages of C5 sugars. This implies the importance of selecting pretreatment conditions that minimize the degradation of pentoses. Different experiments carried out were introduced.

Picture 6: Federico Liuzzi, ENEA, Italy

Gunnar Liden from Lund University made a presentation on Fermentation technology for lignocellulose. He discussed the challenges in lignocellulose fermentation, mixing, fermentation process design, and xylose fermentation. Different experiments carried out and the main outcomes were introduced. All processes in the bioethanol production stages are interrelated. The selection of feedstock is highly important as it has an impact on the process conditions for pretreatment, hydrolysis and fermentation.

Picture 7: Gunnar Liden, Lund University, Sweden

Fabio Sissot from Agriconsulting discussed the main issues on Feedstock harvesting and supply. Different agricultural residues such as wheat/barley straw, rice straw, oat straw, corn stalks were introduced. The main advantage of these residues are no land competition and easy storage. The feedstocks selected for the BIOLYFE demo plant in Crescentino (Arundo donax, Sorghum bicolor and cereal straw) were analysed.

Picture 8: Fabio Fissot, Agriconsulting, Italy

SWOT Workshop on 3rd April 2013 in Madrid, Spain

In order to get an overview of advantages and disadvantages of different value chains a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is conducted in the framework of the BIOLYFE project. The analysis investigated several feedstock and cultivation systems as well as the processing within the BIOLYE plant. First results of the SWOT analysis of the BIOLYFE lignocellulosic ethanol production chains were presented and discussed at the workshop. In addition, the participants had an opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute with their knowledge and experience to the discussion.

The workshop was jointly organised by IFEU and WIP Renewable Energies alongside the 3rd International Conference on Lignocellulosic Ethanol in Madrid, Spain (3-5 April 2013).

In case you are interested in sharing your ideas on challenges and opportunities for lignocellulosic ethanol biorefineries, we invite you fill in the questionnaire and send it to [email protected].

Picture 9: Guido Reinhardt, IFEU, Germany

NEMO project news

In the EU-funded project NEMO (Novel Microbes and Enzymes for 2nd generation ethanol production), 19 partners from R&D and industry are working on the development of technological improvements for the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks such as wheat straw, giant reed (Arundo donax), and spruce wood.

During its implementation from May 2009 to April 2013 the NEMO project has generated significant knowledge and exploitable results in the following main fields:

Development of improved yeast strains fermenting C6 and C5 sugars

Development of industrial yeast strains with improved inhibitor tolerance

Development of novel improved enzymes

Development of improved process concepts such as optimized temperature profile in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation